Atom-photon Interactions Research Articles

Collective biphoton temporal waveform of photon-pair generated from Doppler-broadened atomic ensemble

Photonic quantum states generated from atomic ensembles will play important roles in future quantum networks and long-distance quantum communication because their advantages, such as universal identity and narrow spectral bandwidth, are essential for quantum nodes and quantum repeaters based on atomic ensembles. In this study, we report the collectively coherent superposition of biphoton wavefunction emitted from different velocity classes in a Doppler-broadened cascade-type atomic ensemble. We experimentally demonstrate that the three times difference of temporal width of both biphoton temporal waveforms varies dependent on the wavelengths of the signal and idler photons from both 6S1/2–6P3/2–6D5/2 and –8S1/2 transitions of 133Cs, corresponding to the idler and signal wavelengths of 852 nm–917 nm and 852 nm–795 nm, respectively. Our results help understand the characteristics of biphoton sources from a warm atomic ensemble and can be applied to long-distance quantum networks and practical quantum repeaters based on atom–photon interactions.

Near-resonant light scattering by an atom in a state-dependent trap

Abstract There are an increasing number of experimental scenarios where near-resonant light is applied to atoms tightly trapped in far off-resonant optical fields, such as for quantum optics applications or for atom imaging. Oftentimes, the electronic ground and excited states involved in the optical transition experience unequal trapping potentials. Here, we systematically analyze the effects of unequal trapping on near-resonant atom–light interactions. In particular, we identify regimes where such trapping can lead to significant excess heating compared to atoms in state-independent potentials, and a reduction of total and elastic scattering cross sections associated with a decreased atom–photon interaction efficiency. Understanding these effects can be valuable for achieving maximum efficiency in quantum optics experiments or atom imaging setups, where efficient atom–light interactions on resonance are desired, but achieving equal trapping is not feasible.

High‐Performance Telecom‐Wavelength Biphoton Source from a Hot Atomic Vapor Cell

AbstractTelecom‐band quantum light sources are critical to the development of long‐distance quantum communication technologies. A high‐performance telecom‐wavelength biphoton source from a hot 87Rb atomic vapor cell is reported. Time‐correlated biphotons are generated from the cascade‐type 5S1/2–5P3/2–4D5/2 transition of 87Rb via a spontaneous four‐wave mixing process. The maximum value of biphoton cross‐correlation to be 44(3) is achieved, under the condition of a high optical depth of 112(3), including two‐photon absorption, with a spectral width of approximately 300 MHz. The coincidence count rate of biphoton is estimated to be of the order of 38 000 cps mW−1. It is believed that the telecom‐wavelength biphoton source from an atomic vapor cell can be applied in long‐distance quantum networks and practical quantum repeaters based on atom–photon interactions.

Dynamics of phase space quasi-probability coherence of one of two moving atoms trapped in a cavity coherent field

This study explores the dynamics of atomic mixedness and phase space quasi-probability information of one of two moving atoms trapped in a cavity filled by a coherent field. The atom-photon interactions are considered with the resonance case through nonlinear intensity-dependent coupling. We investigate the impacts of the atom-photon and atomic motion couplings on the dynamics of the atomic Wehrl entropy's mixedness and phase space Husimi distribution information. By helping Wehrl entropy's mixedness dynamics, the dynamics of acceleration and enhancement of the generation of the atomic phase space quasi-probability coherence are examined, and the Husimi distributions of the generated atomic states of one of the two moving atoms are explored. The results are shown that the atomic Husimi distribution and Wehrl entropy's mixedness are susceptible to an increase in the atom-photon and the atomic motion couplings. Therefore, the atomic phase space Husimi distribution coherence can be improved by increasing the atomic motion and nonlinear atom-photon couplings.

Violation of Bell Inequality by Four‐Photon Greenberger‐Horne‐Zeilinger State with a Phase from a Warm Atomic Ensemble

AbstractA Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger (GHZ) entangled state with a phase is crucial for realizing desired multipartite quantum states for practical applications. Here, it is reported that the violations of the general Bell inequality (GBI) introduced in using the four‐photon polarization‐entangled phase‐GHZ state realized via intrinsic polarization correlation and collective two‐photon coherence in the 5S1/2–5P3/2–5D5/2 transition of 87Rb atoms. The phase‐GHZ state can be achieved by the unitary transformation of only one local phase of the four photons. Theoretically, the GHZ state with the π/4 phase affords maximal violation of the GBI of 2√2 at the local measurement settings of the Pauli operators σx and σy. Strong violations of the GBI of the phase‐GHZ state by 47 standard deviations are experimentally demonstrated. In addition to the entanglement witness for the phase‐GHZ state, the results represent a genuine four‐photon entanglement of the phase‐GHZ state, thereby providing a novel resource for realizing photonic quantum computation, magic‐state distillation from entangled states, and quantum networks based on atom–photon interactions.

Nonequilibrium phases of ultracold bosons with cavity-induced dynamic gauge fields

Gauge fields are a central concept in fundamental theories of physics, and responsible for mediating long-range interactions between elementary particles. Recently, it has been proposed that dynamical gauge fields can be naturally engineered by photons in composite, neutral quantum gas-cavity systems using suitable atom-photon interactions. Here we comprehensively investigate nonequilibrium dynamical phases appearing in a two-leg bosonic lattice model with leg-dependent, dynamical complex tunnelings mediated by cavity-assisted two-photon Raman processes. The system constitutes a minimal dynamical flux-lattice model. We study fixed points of the equations of motion and their stability, the resultant dynamical phase diagram, and the corresponding phase transitions and bifurcations. Notably, the phase diagram features a plethora of nonequilibrium dynamical phases including limit-cycle and chaotic phases. In the end, we relate regular periodic dynamics (i.e., limit-cycle phases) of the system to time crystals.

Single atom in a superoscillatory optical trap

Optical tweezers have become essential tools to manipulate atoms or molecules at a single particle level. However, using standard diffraction-limited optical systems, the transverse size of the trap is lower bounded by the optical wavelength, limiting the application range of optical tweezers. Here we report trapping of single ultracold atom in an optical trap that can be continuously tuned from a standard Airy focus to a subwavelength hotspot smaller than the usual Abbe’s diffraction limit. The hotspot was generated using the effect of superoscillations, by the precise interference of multiple free-space coherent waves. We argue that superoscillatory trapping and continuous potential tuning offer not only a way to generate compact and tenable ensembles of trapped atoms for quantum simulators but will also be useful in single molecule quantum chemistry and the study of cooperative atom-photon interactions within subwavelength arrays of quantum emitters.

Spin two-axis-twisting via coherent population trapping based cavity QED

We present a spin two-axis-twisting mechanism via coherent population trapping (CPT) based atom–photon interactions. CPT happens and the atoms are trapped in the dark state (coherent superposition of two ground states) when the ground states are resonantly coupled to a common excited state. Close to CPT, the atoms behave as two dark-state based spins, which interact with the common cavity vacuum fields. The otherwise nonexistent interaction is created between them and is identified to be responsible for the two-axis-twisting of the ground state spin. The essential difference from the previous schemes is the compatibility of the twisting spin squeezing with the resonant atom-light interaction. The CPT resonant unit serves as a kind of new ingredients for the quantum networks.

Quantum correlations beyond entanglement between two moving atoms interacting with a coherent cavity

Studying the ability of atom-photon interactions, especially in two two-level atomic systems, to generate quantum information resources has recently become an important research topic in quantum information science. Therefore, this paper explores the ability of two moving atoms coupling with a coherent field through a two-photon transition to generate atomic quantum correlations by using local quantum uncertainty (LQU), local quantum Fisher information (LQFI) as well as logarithmic negativity (LN). Schrödinger equation is used to obtain the time evolution of the atom-cavity-atom interactions with an initial coherent cavity state and an initial atomic uncorrelated pure state. The generation of atomic LQU, LQFI, and LN correlations are exactly examined under the unitary interaction parameter effects, including the atom-cavity coupling strengths, the cavity field half-wave number, and the initial coherent state intensity. The atom-cavity-atom interaction parameters lead to notable changes in the amplitudes, speed, and regularity of the LQU, LQFI, and LN dynamics, which can be enhanced by increasing the initial coherent intensity. The cavity field half-wave number leads to generating atomic quantum correlations with regular oscillatory behavior. The sudden death-birth phenomenon of the logarithmic negativity depends on the atom-cavity-atom interaction and the atomic location parameter.

Unidirectional propagation of single photons realized by a scatterer coupled to whispering-gallery-mode microresonators

Coherently manipulating single photons in nanophotonic structures with unidirectional propagation is one of the central goals for integrated quantum information processing. Photonic devices constructed by a single atom coupled to a whispering-gallery-mode microresonator (WGMM) with nonideal chiral photon-atom interactions inevitably induce undesired photon scattering. Here, an external scatterer is introduced to the WGMM to cancel the reflection of signal photons by an atom due to nonideal chiral interactions. By properly tuning the positions of the scatterer, destructive and constructive interferences between reflected photons of different pathways are utilized to control the reflection properties of single incident photons. The results show that the reflection probabilities can be suppressed by applying the interplay between chirality and backscattering. Constructing perfect destructive interferences directly leads to unidirectional propagation even when the photon-atom interactions are not ideal. Because the amplitudes of the reflected photons produced by the scatterer can be enhanced to meet requirements of perfect destructive interfering processes, unidirectional propagation is preserved against dissipations.

Tunable single-photon nonreciprocal scattering and targeted router in a giant atom-waveguide system with chiral couplings

We investigate the single-photon scattering properties of a driven three-level giant atom chirally coupled to two waveguides simultaneously in both the Markovian and the non-Markovian regimes. It is shown that under the Markovian limit, the chiral photon-atom interactions enable nonreciprocal scattering in a single waveguide and targeted photon routing with a probability of 100% in two waveguides, while the presence of the driving field and the giant atom structure introduce a more tunable parameter to manipulate the single-photon scattering behaviors. We also examine how the non-reciprocity and routing capability are influenced by the imperfect chirality and the atomic dissipation. In the non-Markovian regime, we show that the scattering behaviors are more complicated. The non-Markovicity induced non-reciprocity and photon routing are demonstrated in this paper. We believe that those results have potential applications in quantum network engineering.

Polarization‐Entangled Photon Pairs from Warm Atomic Ensemble with Magnetic Background Noise

AbstractAtomic ensembles are important quantum resources for the generation, manipulation, and quantum memory of entangled photons. In photonic quantum information based on atom–photon interactions, high‐quality entangled‐photon‐pair sources are essential for realizing quantum information networks consisting of channels to connect the nodes through atomic ensembles. Here, a proof‐of‐concept for controlling polarization‐entangled photon‐pair sources from atomic ensembles by an external magnetic field under a magnetic noise environment is demonstrated. In the unshielded magnetic field, the polarization entangled state of the photon pair could be optimized to the target state by adjusting the magnetic field in an atomic vapor cell. The polarization‐interference fringe, Bell's inequality value, quantum state tomography, and Hong–Ou–Mandel interference of the polarization entangled photon pairs from the cascade‐type 5S1/2–5P3/2–5D5/2 transition of 87Rb according to the direction of the external magnetic field. Accordingly, a magnetic field is found to be a promising means for controlling entangled two‐qubit states based on atom–photon.

Trapping of single atom and precise control of its coupling strength in micro-optical cavity

Cavity quantum electrodynamic system with strongly coupled single atoms provides a good platform for studying quantum information processing, quantum simulation, quantum network, and distributed quantum computing. Cooling and trapping single atoms is a crucial technique in the quantum technology. At present, in a high-finesse cavity with finite space, cooling and trapping single atoms is a big challenge, even though it is a mature technique for free space. Great efforts have been made to cool and trap single atoms inside a cavity, and for a trapped atom its lifetime has reached as long as tens of seconds. Developing a more flexible method of cooling and trapping single atoms in a cavity is still essential for a strongly coupled cavity quantum electrodynamic system. In this work, we demonstrate experimentally that a single cesium atom in a cavity can be trapped by utilizing a single optical tweezer settled in cavity mode, and its lifetime is (2.60 ± 0.18) s. The experiment is carried out in a Fabry-Perot cavity, which is assembled by two concave mirrors each with a curvature radius of 100 mm, and cavity length of 335 μm. The concave surfaces are highly reflective, and the cavity has a finesse of 6.1 × 10<sup>4</sup>. The 1080 nm optical tweezer with a waist of 2 μm is formed by an achromatic lens group with a numerical aperture of 0.4. At first, the precooled atomic assemble released from the magneto-optical trap (MOT) is transferred into cavity mode by an optical dipole trap with a waist of 36 μm. Then, one of the successfully transferred atoms is captured by the optical tweezer with the aid of cavity cooling mechanism. A blue detuned cavity locking laser is used as a standing-wave optical trap along the cavity axis. The signal of successfully trapped one atom is obtained by recording transmission of the cavity that will decrease owing to the strong coupling induced vacuum Rabi splitting. Finally, we demonstrate the precise manipulation of the atom-cavity coupling strength, which is achieved by scanning the position of the trapped atom step by step by using a high-precision translation stage. The system realized in this work can be used to study the dynamics of single atom-photon interactions with adjustable coupling strength. In addition, the mechanism adopted in this work is compatible with constructing tweezer arrays inside cavity mode, and thus possesses more flexibility and great potentials in cavity-based quantum entanglement and quantum simulation.

Simulation of state transfer from atom to cavity radiation in atom-photon interaction in large detuning

In this research, atom-cavity entanglement in closed Jaynes – Cumming model has been used with the assumption of large detuning between atom and cavity, to simulate the state transfer from atom to cavity radiation. A two-level atom which is prepared in a half-half superposition between the ground and excited states, has been exposed to initially coherent radiation field which is far from resonance with the atom. Mixture of each subsystem, linear entropy, entanglement, Von Neumann entropy and Schmidt decomposition of composite system as a function of time, has been determined analytically, for the first time. Assuming large frequency differences between atom and radiation, the simulation is shown no energy is transferred between atom and radiation due to large detuning, even though atom-radiation entanglement took place. Also, it has been shown that a particular measurement on the atom in this composite entangled system, can project the composite system into a separable (non-entangled) state so that the radiation state is changed into a superposition of the coherent state which is called the cat state. The conditions required to transfer radiation into odd and even cat states have been particularly investigated.

Deterministic measurement of a Rydberg superatom qubit via cavity-enhanced single-photon emission

With Rydberg dipole interactions, a mesoscopic atomic ensemble becomes a superatom that behaves like a single atom but couples collectively with photons. It is potentially a strong candidate as a qubit in quantum information science, especially for quantum networks. In this paper, we report a cavity-enhanced single-photon interface for a Rydberg superatom and demonstrate deterministic qubit readout via a photon burst. We make use of a low-finesse ring cavity to enhance the atom–photon interaction and obtain in-fiber single-photon generation efficiency of 44%. Harnessing the dipole interaction between two Rydberg levels, we may create either a sequence of multiple single photons or nothing, conditioned on an initial qubit state. We achieve a measurement fidelity of 93.0% in 4.8 µs. Our work complements the experimental toolbox of harnessing Rydberg superatoms for quantum information applications.

Macroscopic quantum states in Dicke model of [formula omitted]-symmetric non-Hermitian Hamiltonian and superradiant phase with imaginary atomic population

We in this paper study the macroscopic quantum states of a PT-symmetric Non-Hermitian Hamiltonian for N quantum-dots of two imaginary-levels in an optical cavity. The eigenstate energies are obtained in terms of spin-coherent-state variational method, in which PT-symmetric but non-unitary operator is used to diagonalize the effective non-Hermitian Hamiltonian. Biorthogonal sets of the trial wave functions necessarily appear as a consequence of non-Hermitian Hamiltonian. In the normal phase of zero photon-number average energies are imaginary called the PT-symmetry broken state, while the atomic population is real showing the unstable nature of the system. The energy of superradiant phase (SP) is real called unbroken symmetry state, however the atomic population is pure imaginary. The electrons in SP oscillate between upper and lower levels stimulated by the cavity field. The quantum phase transition from broken to unbroken symmetry states occurs at critical values of the atom-field coupling and nonlinear atom-photon interaction.

Photon-pair generation from a chip-scale Cs atomic vapor cell.

The realization of a narrowband photonic quantum source based on an atomic device is considered essential in the practical development of photonic quantum information science and technology. In this study, we present the first step toward the development of a photon-pair source based on a microfabricated Cs atomic vapor cell. Time-correlated photon pairs from the millimeter-scale Cs vapor cell are emitted via the spontaneous four-wave mixing process of the cascade-type 6S1/2-6P3/2-8S1/2 transition of 133Cs. The maximum normalized cross-correlation value between the signal and idler photons is measured as 622(8) under a weak pump power of 10 µ;W. Our photon source violates the Cauchy-Schwartz inequality by a factor of >105. We believe that our approach has very important applications in the context of realizing practical scalable quantum networks based on atom-photon interactions.

Trapping a free-propagating single-photon into an atomic ensemble as a quantum stationary light pulse

Efficient photon–photon interaction is one of the key elements for realizing quantum information processing. The interaction, however, must often be mediated through an atomic medium due to the bosonic nature of photons, and the interaction time, which is critically linked to the efficiency, depends on the properties of the atom–photon interaction. While the electromagnetically induced transparency effect does offer the possibility of photonic quantum memory, it does not enhance the interaction time as it fully maps the photonic state to an atomic state. The stationary light pulse (SLP) effect, on the contrary, traps the photonic state inside an atomic medium with zero group velocity, opening up the possibility of enhanced interaction time. In this work, we report the first experimental demonstration of trapping a free-propagating single-photon into a cold atomic ensemble via the quantum SLP (QSLP) process. We conclusively show that the quantum properties of the single-photon state are preserved well during the QSLP process. Our work paves the way for new approaches for efficient photon–photon interactions, exotic photonic states, and many-body simulations in photonic systems.

Nonlinear Optical Potential with Parity-Time Symmetry in a Coherent Atomic Gas

We propose a scheme to realize a parity-time (PT) symmetric nonlinear system in a coherent atomic gas via electromagnetically induced transparency. We show that it is possible to construct an optical potential with PT symmetry due to the interplay among the Kerr nonlinearity stemmed from the atom-photon interaction, the linear potential induced by a far-detuned Stark laser field, and the optical gain originated from an incoherent pumping. Since the real part of the PT-symmetric potential depends only on the intensity of the probe field, the potential is nonlinear and its PT-symmetric properties are determined by the input laser intensity of the probe field. Moreover, we obtain the fundamental soliton solutions of the system and attain their stability region in the system parameter space. The dependence of the exceptional point (EP) location on the soliton maximum amplitude is also illustrated. The research results reported here open a new avenue for understanding the unique properties of PT symmetry of a nonlinear system. They are also promising for designing novel optical devices applicable in optical information processing and transmission.

Single-photon blockade in quasichiral atom–photon interaction: simultaneous high purity and high efficiency

We investigate the single-photon blockade (1PB) in the quasichiral regime of atom–photon interaction, where the effective coupling between the cavity and the atom is bidirectional but asymmetrical, achieved by coupling to a dissipative environment. A synthetic magnetic current ϕ is induced in the closed-loop coupling, which breaks down the reciprocity of atom–photon interaction, and can be utilized to create asymmetrical or even unidirectional effective coupling between two selected quantum states. As an example, we couple the single-atom cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) system to a strongly dissipative plasmonic cavity. We find that in the quasichiral regime, the unconventional photon blockade (UPB) and the conventional photon blockade (CPB) realize simultaneously in the condition of maximum chirality (ϕ = π/2 and 3π/2). As a result, 1PB in the quasichiral regime can combine the advantages of both UPB and CPB, demonstrating the perfect single-photon purity, higher efficiency, non-oscillating time dynamics as well as lower requirement of mode coupling to achieve UPB. Our work paves the way for 1PB towards practical applications and reveals the intriguing quantum-optics phenomena in the quasichiral light–matter interaction.